Fusco glared at Reese/Carter as he stood in her body and still hadn't said a peep. "Come on Wonder Boy, if you can't tell me then how are you ever going to tell her?" he demanded unable to take the silence anymore.

"I don't want to tell you," John/Joss grumbled. And he most certainly didn't want to tell Carter either.

"Look, you got feelins for Carter; anyone can tell how you feel about her except for probably her which usually happens," Lionel said with a shake of his head.

"Anyone?"

"Short Stuff even knows and that's saying something since she doesn't deal in feelins, partner," Fusco complained.

Reese/Carter sighed as his shoulders slumped. "Fusco, I can't tell her." he said softly, dejectedly.

"Why not?"

"Because if I tell Carter that I love her then she'll want to do something about it and I can't be with her while we have to hide. I can't bring someone into that. She has a son, a life to live, and being with me could wind up killing her," John/Joss explained. Maybe if he could get Lionel to understand then he had some kind of hope to get Carter to.

"Well at least you admitted it Wonder Boy, now you got to tell her. Oh, and by the way, it's hard to call you Wonder Boy when you look like Carter," Fusco said.

"I just told you why I can't. And being in her body just makes me want her more. Her hormones are driving me crazy," John/Joss said. Everytime he thought about her he was squirming and squeezing his/her legs together with need. He rubbed his/her hands on top of his/her thighs, but instead of helping, it made matters worse.

"Doesn't matter, Mr. Sunshine, because all the reasons why not are just excuses, you're scared to tell her how you feel, so suck it up and do it so we can get out of here. You and Carter can figure the rest out afterwards. If she wants to be with you even with this new wrinkle of having to hide from god knows what, shouldn't it be up to her?" Fusco said in aggravation before grabbing Reese/Carter's arm and tugging him back out into the lobby of the hotel seeing Shaw escorting Carter/Reese back. "Alright you two, you practiced, now tell each other so we can get the hell outta here." he commanded, giving Reese/Carter a firm shove forward.

Joss/John stared at her body deciding she had to go first because John wasn't going to. "I'm pissed off at you because I'm back on the outside looking in!" Joss/John snapped as she eyed John in her body. "I thought we were growing closer after you kissed in the morgue." Joss/John accused.

Shaw and Fusco exchanged looks. "Whoa, you two kissed?" Shaw demanded. But both Joss and John ignored them.

"You were opening up to me slowly and showing me the real you that no one gets to see, but then you came to say goodbye and left, only to come back with your new identity but also with an invisible wall between us and it hurts. I was the person you came to and now I'm not even someone you can stand to be near," Joss/John said, trying to hide her hurt but didn't think she did a very good job of it.

John felt like a total jackass. "Carter, you're my friend, and I pulled away because of what's happening, not because of you. I told you before I can't lose you and this fight we are in can go sideways quickly," John/Joss explained quietly, careful of what to say with Lionel around.

Lionel rolled his eyes. "Hey, Wonder Boy, that ain't all, tell her the truth!" Fusco griped.

Joss continued to stare at her body waiting for John to say something. "John, just tell me so I can have my body back!" she was close to begging. She really missed her body and she really wanted to know what he was keeping inside even now.

Fusco and Shaw eyed John/Joss and watched as he struggled to speak only managing a grunt. "We'll be stuck in here forever," Fusco whined.

"Reese you've been in Carter for over an hour," Shaw paused earning exasperated looks from them both. "And yes, I meant the double entendre," she snickered. "Look, you only switched with Carter, that means you only have something with her. Both Fusco and I are back into our bodies so that leaves you two. Carter spit hers out, she's pissed that you are avoiding her after you searched for a way out of the morgue in her throat."

Joss/John stepped forward and grabbed her hand and Shaw took her cue to keep quiet; if there was anything she knew about John was that he would dig his heels in the more they pressured him. "Please John, just tell me. I know this is hell of a time for you to try to open up and I know it's hard but please try, for me," Joss/John pleaded.

He swallowed hard as he glanced first at Shaw, then Fusco, and back to Carter. He had to lean his head back because his body was much taller than Carter's. "I love you," he whispered. "And I've been avoiding you because I didn't want to lose you."

Joss gasped which sounded odd coming from John's diaphragm. But before she could say or do anything light ebbed out of her eyes and mouth and John was hit with it too, before she fell to the ground again. Man, jumping bodies was annoying. Joss blinked as she sat up and grinned happily. She was finally back in her body as she touched her chest and then her face.

"I'm back in my body," she declared happily.

"Fuck yeah, door is back. I'm outta here," Shaw announced happily running for the door.

"Drive me back to civilization. I don't want to be stuck in the car with those two!" Fusco demanded as he hurried behind her.

John sat up as Shaw and Fusco was out the door in a flash leaving him with Carter alone. They sat on the lobby floor of the old rundown hotel just merely staring at each other. "I'm sorry, Carter," he murmured softly.

"Don't," she said immediately. "Don't you dare apologize for telling me something you should have told me a long time ago," she said angrily as she got to her feet after she watched John climbing to his. "We should talk about it."

"I can't." he countered as he walked towards the door. He swore he could sense how her body felt when she was angry and it made him want her even more. To rub her arms, to kiss her on the neck where he could see her pulse point, to sooth her by gently massaging her shoulders. Instead Joss grabbed his hand.

"Why not? It's not like you can lie and say that you don't love me. That was your truth which let us swap back...finally. Now talk to me," she demanded.

John sighed as she stepped directly in front of him blocking his path to the exit. It wasn't as if he couldn't just sidestep her but the problem was she was his ride home. This tiny town didn't have good cell service and it certainly didn't have any public transportation back to Manhattan. If Carter didn't want to go anywhere until they talked she could make it happen.

"Joss, if I told you how I truly felt and if somehow you felt the same way I'd lose you because of it," he said softly. "I can't give you anything. Not when I have to hide from Samaritan and Decima. Any wrong move I make could be the last and if you're with me when that happens…" he voice trailed off.

She stared at him. "You big loveable idiot," she said and he blinked as he looked at her. "Thank you for worrying about me like that but it's my life. I'm glad Harold did this to us even though I'm going to put him through the wringer for it. But I'm glad because you were forced to tell me the truth that I deserved to know." Joss had no intention of letting John slip through her fingers especially knowing how he felt. She lost him once when he came to say goodbye to her when Samaritan came online, and she thought she'd never see him again before he showed up as Detective Riley. She wasn't losing him again.

"Carter, this doesn't change anything."

"The hell it doesn't," she countered.

He sighed. "Can we go, maybe discuss this when we're back in Manhattan," he suggested.

Joss snorted. "Hell no, because you'll pull your vanishing act, so no, not a chance that you're escaping this. I know you care about me and now I know you love me. Well good news, John; I love you too. I realized how I felt about you when you came by my place and told me that you were leaving because Samaritan was online and you didn't know when or if you would be back. I kept it to myself because I didn't think you'd ever be ready to hear how I truly felt about you. But now, now I know you feel the same way and you're afraid of what might happen and I understand, John, but I want you: Samaritan or no Samaritan," she said steadily as she reached up and looped her arms around his neck.

She smiled having stunned him into silence. Joss played with his hair at the back of his neck loving the look on his face. "I just rendered the man-in-the-suit speechless," she murmured as she stood up on tip-toes and kissed him.

John sighed as he slowly responded to the kiss, kissing her back, and gave himself over to the moment. He tried pushing her away. He tried keeping his feelings to himself. But Joss was a force to be reckoned with and he was helpless to resist her.

Joss moaned in the back of her throat as the kiss melted from soft to blistering hot in seconds. She felt her innards turn to mush as his tongue settled between her lips gently playing with hers. He pulled back after several breathless moments.

"Mmm, our first kiss was in a morgue and now our second kiss was in an old rundown hotel. The third needs to be somewhere way more romantic or you'll be in for it," she teased dreamily.

He stared at her intently before saying; "I can't give you normal, Carter."

"I can handle that as long as you let me have you and not just a part of you," she stipulated.

He nodded. "I can handle that…for you."

She smiled knowing John wouldn't be able to just flip a switch and be an open book and to believe he would, would just set them both up for heartbreak. John's life had been living in shadows and keeping a part of himself detached from everyone and everything for decades so it was going to be a process for them both but she was sure together they could overcome any obstacle including Samaritan.

They slowly filed out of the hotel together after grabbing the laptop, turning the light off, and headed to her car together. She felt his hand on her lower back as he walked beside her and she was going to revel in this new intimacy they had.

"So is it unreasonable to expect a first date soon...like tonight?—because I'm hungry since I skipped dinner to help find our so called missing friend," she asked coyly, and she knew John was skipping meals and it was upsetting her.

He looked at her. "I am hungry," he agreed with a tiny shy smile. "But what are dating rules for a detective and a captain?"

"Well, that they shouldn't date or one or both get transferred, so I guess we'll have to sneak around. No public display of affection and when we are at the precinct I get to just boss you around and pretend I'm not getting hot under the collar for doing so," she murmured, it sounded like the thought turned her on.

"I guess I'll have to pretend to not want to rip your clothes off as you do so," he whispered in his sexy soft voice.

She groaned at that and he opened the car door for her and simply climbed in. She turned the car on and waited for John to climb inside. Joss slowly pulled out of the parking lot and back onto the empty road. "So, John, while Shaw and I were talking in the bathroom I learned something interesting about you," she admitted.

"You did?"

"Mmmhmm, walking in one's shoes does that," she agreed. Like he had a nice body and she couldn't wait to get her hands on that said body.

"Don't I know it." he muttered. He still remembered the feel of her lovely breasts. He wanted to touch and kiss every inch of her flesh. But he was going to take his time with this new shift with Carter.

Joss smiled. "So what gets John Reese—vigilante extraordinaire—to blush?" she asked.

He blinked as he looked at her. "I don't blush," he countered seriously.

"Oh yes you do, I saw it in the bathroom mirror."

He glowered. "I do not blush. It must have been a trick of the light."

Joss glanced at him quickly before smirking. "Alright, fine, play it that way: I'll just figure out a way to make you blush to prove it to you, John."

He shook his head. "Good luck with that, Carter," he murmured as he gently rested a hand on hers that rested on the gearshift and she curled her fingers around his and was excited for the next step in their relationship they were about to journey onto.

AN: See the Careese is real while the rest of this story was just pure chaos. Hope everyone has a safe and an extremely fun Halloween :) And I should be beginning to post my new story soon.

Thanks for reading this :)